Monterey Car Week serves up a retro Bugatti, a special-edition Aventador and a record price for a James Bond car

Supercar manufacturers hauled out some hedonistic hardware at the Monterey Car Week in California, US, which ended on Sunday.

Bugatti launched a new special-edition version of the Chiron called the Centodieci.

After a four-decade hiatus, the French sports car brand was revived in 1990 when the Bugatti EB110 was unveiled on company founder Ettore Bugatti’s (EB) 110th birthday (110). Volkswagen Group acquired the brand in 1998.

The special-edition Centodieci (which means 110 in Italian) celebrates the EB110’s contribution to the brand. The Centodieci is based on the mid-engined, two-seater Bugatti Chiron but with the bodywork heavily adapted to pay homage to the flat and wedge-shaped EB110.

Apart from the styling changes, the 8.0l W16 engine makes an astounding 1,176kW, which is 72kW more than in the Chiron. The car also weighs less than the Chiron thanks to lightweight windshield wipers and stabilisers made of carbon fibre.

This enables the Centodieci to sprint 0-100 km/h in just 2.4 seconds, 0-200 in just 6.1 secs, 0-300 in 13.1 seconds, and reach an electronically governed 380km/h top speed.

“With the Centodieci, we pay homage to the EB110 super sports car, which was built in the 1990s and is very much a part of our tradition-steeped history,” says Stephan Winkelmann, president of Bugatti.

“With the EB110, Bugatti catapulted itself to the top of the automotive world once again after 1956 with a new model.”

It was a crucial interim step for the production facility that was newly founded in Molsheim in 1998, taking Bugatti back to its roots in France, and the first hyper sports car of modern times — the Veyron.

Only 10 Bugatti Centodiecis will be built, each at a price of $8.9m (R135m) and, sorry, they’re sold out already.

LAMBORGHINI SVJ 63 ROADSTER

Also at Monterey Car Week, at the Pebble Beach Concept Car lawn, Lamborghini presented the Aventador SVJ 63 Roadster, the most exclusive edition of the drop-top V12 sports car.

Produced in just 63 units — commemorating the company’s founding year of 1963 — it’s a collaboration between Lamborghini’s design and Ad Personam teams who have drawn Lamborghini’s personalisation programme to create eight exotic new interior and exterior design expressions.

The car was shown in Pebble Beach in a matt grey Grigio Acheso set off by visible carbon fibre exterior elements and orange detailing. Inside, tri-tone Alcantara upholstery in grey and orange is combined with carbon fibre and CarbonSkin. The carbon fibre sports seats have a “63” logo and lasered.

The Aventador SVJ is mechanically identical to the Aventador SVJ coupé, WHICH that holds the Nürburgring-Nordschleife production car record. It produces 566kW and 720Nm of torque for a claimed 0-100 km/h time in 2.9 seconds and a top speed of more than 350km/h.

The Aventador SVJ Roadster’s 63 units are already sold to collectors worldwide.

JAMES BOND’S DB5 FETCHES RECORD AUCTION PRICE

A street-legal 1965 Aston Martin DB5 originally created to promote the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball sold for $6.4m (R98m) at the classic car auction in Monterey.

James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 from Thunderball, complete with fake guns and tyre slashers, sold on auction for R97.4m. Picture: SUPPLIED

Fake guns exit from under the indicators. Picture: SUPPLIED

The car is equipped with tools fit for a spy, including tyre slashers, nail spreaders, rotating licence plates, a smoke screen, an oil-slick maker, a pop-up “bulletproof” screen and a pair of fake guns that popped out from behind the front indicators that make realistic shot sounds — all of these features operational.

Though this car never actually appeared on-screen, it secured a record amount for any 007 vehicle yet sold. It was also the highest price paid for an Aston Martin DB5 at auction.

The model actually used in Thunderball went on auction back in 2010 and sold for only $4.6m (R71m). And that DB5 did not have integrated spy gear until after the fact.

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